Two changes for Saints ahead of Bristol trip

Phil Dowson has made two changes to his Northampton Saints side for Round 2 of the Gallagher PREM, as his side make the trip to Bristol Bears on Saturday (3 October, kick-off: 3.05pm).

Last term Saints sealed a record-breaking win when Bears were the visitors to Northampton, scoring an impressive 14 tries in a 94-33 victory, on their way to securing a home play-off last term.

But the men in Black, Green and Gold are without a win at Ashton Gate in their last five outings there, most recently claiming victory on Bristol soil back in 2021 – when a Tommy Freeman brace helped Saints to a 20-36 win.

This time around the 25-year-old – who scored a hat-trick from the wing in Saints’ season opener last week – shifts to fullback for Northampton, allowing Ollie Sleightholme to start on the wing at Ashton Gate alongside George Hendy.

Club captain Fraser Dingwall and Scotland’s Rory Hutchinson start in the centres for the second week running, while an unchanged half-back partnership of Archie McParland and Fin Smith continue on at scrum-half and fly-half respectively in Bristol.

Northampton remain completely unchanged in the tight five, with loosehead prop Emmanuel Iyogun, hooker Curtis Langdon and tighthead prop Cleopas Kundiona forming the front row, with locks Alex Coles and Ed Prowse behind them in the engine room.

Josh Taylor marks Saints’ second change to the starting XV, as he makes his first PREM start alongside Josh Kemeny and Henry Pollock in Northampton’s back row.

Saints name a standard five-three bench for the Ashton Gate clash, with the likes of Italians Danilo Fischetti and Ion Neculai and England internationals Callum Chick and Alex Mitchell among those set to enter the action in Bristol.  

BRISTOL BEARS vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

Gallagher PREM, Round 2

Saturday 3 October, 2026

Ashton Gate

Kick-off: 3.05pm

15 Tommy Freeman

14 Ollie Sleightholme

13 Rory Hutchinson

12 Fraser Dingwall (c)

11 George Hendy

10 Fin Smith

9 Archie McParland

1 Emmanuel Iyogun

2 Curtis Langdon

3 Cleopas Kundiona

4 Alex Coles

5 Ed Prowse

6 Josh Kemeny

7 Josh Taylor

8 Henry Pollock

Replacements:

16 Robbie Smith

17 Danilo Fischetti

18 Ion Neculai

19 Tom Lockett

20 Callum Chick

21 Alex Mitchell

22 Anthony Belleau

23 James Pater

Not available for selection:

Ben Alexander, Trevor Davison, Malik Faissal, Luke Green, Tom Litchfield, Henry Lumley, Tom Pearson, Aidan Pugh, Oliver Scola, Toby Thame, Edoardo Todaro, and Lefty Zigiriadis.

Referee: Ian Tempest

Assistant referees: Jonathan Cook and Gareth Holsgrove

No.4: Anthony Woodthorpe

TMO: David Rose